Sun 20 Nov 2016
LUCY CORES – Corpse de Ballet. Duell Sloan & Pearce, hardcover, 1944. Collier, paperback, 1965 (shown). Rue Morgue Press, trade paperback, 2004.
The threesome of detectives who work together in this book to solve the murder of a male ballet star on the night of his comeback also appeared in one earlier novel, Painted To Kill (Duell, 1943). The occupations of two of them, however, have changed. Lt. Andrew Torrent is still a homicide detective, but Eric Skeets has become a lieutenant in the army, and Toni Ney is now a newspaper reporter, albeit only a daily exercise columnist who sometimes also covers the world of ballet.
I am not ordinarily a fan of ballet, but Miss Cores’ depiction of what goes on behind the scenes, either in rehearsal or the actual performances themselves, is fascinating. Jealousy and competitive rivalry being what it is, there is no shortage of suspects in the death of the famed choreographer and dancer Izlomin, and it takes quite a while (over 220 pages) to sort out who was where when and why they might want to see him dead.
Damping my enthusiasm a tad, though, is the complicated nature of the means, requiring five jam-packed pages for the final full explanation, parts of which require a sizable suspension of disbelief, at least on my part. The attraction of Toni to one of the suspects, seriously threatening her unofficial engagement to Lt. Skeets, also seemed to have been added as an edgy distraction I’m not sure the story really needed.
It all ends well, however, and thankfully so, as this was our protagonists’ last recorded adventure together.
November 20th, 2016 at 12:15 pm
Caryl Brahms & S.J. Simon wrote several mysteries featuring the Stroganoff Ballet Company and the unfortunate Inspector Adam Quill. They are very funny and astonishingly frank sexually for their time.
November 20th, 2016 at 2:31 pm
I started one of Brahms and Simon books once, but as I recall, I didn’t get very far. That was quite a long time ago, and in many ways, I’m a different person now. I’ll try again someday.
November 21st, 2016 at 12:02 am
There is also Edgar Box (Gore Vidal) ‘s DEATH IN THE FIFTH POSITION, so ballet was served pretty well in the genre.
November 21st, 2016 at 2:21 am
If it matters, and I’m sure it doesn’t, I didn’t get very far with the Edgar Box book, either. Ballet just wasn’t my thing, not when I was younger.
November 21st, 2016 at 5:47 am
I didn’t like Cores’ “Painted To Kill”. Or for that matter, Vidal’s “Death in the Fifth Position”.
There are a lot of hopelessly bad mystery novels. These are two of them. Both were written by people who didn’t spend much time in the mystery genre.
I’ve spent a lot of time on my website celebrating “Pros”, professional mystery writers who produced a large body of work, and knew what they were doing: Ellery Queen, Stuart Palmer, Craig Rice, Rufus King, the Lockridges, Anthony Boucher, Helen McCloy, Lawrence Blochman, Helen Reilly, H.C. Bailey, Freeman Wills Crofts, Frederick Irving Anderson, George Bagby.
IMHO, these writers’ quality often gets overlooked and undervalued.
November 21st, 2016 at 6:20 am
I love ballet.
My back is not good enough to leap into the air and clap my hands over my head, as they do in Bournonville ballet. So I’ll have to watch others do it 🙂
One of the things that turned me off by “Death in the Fifth Position” is its extremely negative depiction of the world of ballet.
And I too tried and failed to read one of the Brahms and Simon books, mainly because it too took a jaundiced, satirical, negative tone towards ballet. Still, I plan to try again sometime with Brahms and Simon.
November 21st, 2016 at 1:12 pm
Brahms and Simon don’t take “a jaundiced, satirical, negative tone towards ballet.” Brahms – among other things – was a professional ballet critic. They do have a “a jaundiced, satirical” view of the people involved though. One of the aspects of their book is the astonishing ability of foolish and fatuous human beings to produce great art and still remain foolish and fatuous.
November 21st, 2016 at 3:19 pm
Cores, on the other hand, even though perhaps no more than an average mystery writer, in CORPSE DE BALLET displayed an affection for both ballet and the people in it that came through loud and clear, with a nastiness only on the part of two, in both cases necessary to the story in order to have both a victim and a killer.
November 21st, 2016 at 5:21 pm
I’ll put CORPSE DE BALLET in my queue.
It sounds interesting in the review.
Thanks!
July 19th, 2017 at 4:52 pm
Brand new is Caro Soles’ A Friend of Mr. Nijinsky by Crossroads Press (2017). I just finished it and found this historical mystery set in 1916 New York to be a nice balance between the history and the mystery.
July 19th, 2017 at 6:09 pm
Not a book I would have ever heard about without your recommendation, Bill. Thanks!